Someone left a bloody pig's head outside a Philadelphia mosque

A pig's head left on the doorstep of a Philadelphia mosque is the latest in a list of growing anti-Muslim incidents and rhetoric around the country.

Early Monday morning, a caretaker for the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society found a bloodied, severed head of a pig, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Philadelphia Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations have all launched their own investigations into the incident.

Philadelphia city leaders gathered on Tuesday afternoon to speak out against the incident. Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter condemned the attack and also took the chance to address Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's comment on Monday when he called for a ban on Muslims coming into the United States.

"It engenders a level of fear and fear mongering that we have not seen literally since the 1930’s and 40’s. He’s taken a page from the playbook of Hitler," Nutter said.

Philadelphia's mayor-elect Jim Kenney was also spoke out against the attack in public statement on Monday.

“The bigotry that desecrated Al-Aqsa mosque today has no place in Philadelphia," he said, adding that the city has "a long history of coming together in the face of challenge."

He added: "We cannot allow hate to divide us now, in the face of unprecedented difficulties. I ask all Philadelphians to join me in rejecting this despicable act and supporting our Muslim neighbors.”

The pig's head that was left outside of a Philadelphia mosque on Sunday night.

Image: Marwan Kreidie

The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that surveillance footage exists of someone driving past the mosque and throwing an object at the building around 11 p.m. Sunday night. Philadelphia's police commissioner Charles Ramsey said that the police is looking to the public to help identify the vehicle's tag.

CAIR is asking this incident be investigated as a hate crime charge.

As in Judaism, Muslims do not eat pork because it is considered unclean. To leave a pig's head at the door of a mosque then, is akin to "smearing feces" on a door, said Jacob Bender, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Philadelphia. The act is a "desecration."

Sunday's act in Philadelphia was not unique. In Australia, someone left a pig's head in a bathroom next to a Muslim prayer room at the University of Western Australia.

These incidents are happening in a climate where Trump and other presidential candidates have made anti-Muslim statements.

"There's been a whole cacophony of anti-muslim statements," said Marwan Kreidie, executive director of Arab American Development Corporation, which shares office space with the mosque. "All it takes is for some knucklehead to listen to that and do something awful like what they did with the pig’s head."

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